The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.010  Thursday, 2 January 2003

[1]     From:   Robin Hamilton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003 19:09:15 -0000
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.004 Re: Garbles in Shakespeare

[2]     From:   John W. Kennedy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 01 Jan 2003 16:42:22 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 13.2482 Garbles in Shakespeare

[3]     From:   Al Magary <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003 22:27:29 -0800
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.004 Re: Garbles in Shakespeare


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Robin Hamilton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003 19:09:15 -0000
Subject: 14.004 Re: Garbles in Shakespeare
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.004 Re: Garbles in Shakespeare

>Garble is not a good word to search for. A bit of confusing text is
>called a "crux."

Isn't there a bit of elision here?  A crux turns on a piece of stable
text, such as Lear's "Pray thee, undo this button," where there's even
pre-post-modernist multiple interpretations.  A garble (which I assumed
Al was asking after) is where the text itself is mushed, a different
business entirely.

Robin Hamilton

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           John W. Kennedy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 01 Jan 2003 16:42:22 -0500
Subject: 13.2482 Garbles in Shakespeare
Comment:        Re: SHK 13.2482 Garbles in Shakespeare

Al Magary <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.> writes,

>Can a few instances of garbles in Sh. and other Tudor texts be pointed
>out to me so that I can see how editors dealt with them?

One of the most famous is:

   I see that men make rope's in such a scarre
from "All's Well That Ends Well", IV, ii.

No-one has ever come up with an accepted solution for that, though it is
generally accepted that it means something like "I see that man may
catch us in such a snare".

Another is:

   a table of greensleeves
in "Henry V", II, iii.

Since Theobald, this has usually been read as:
   'a [he] babbled of green fields.

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Al Magary <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003 22:27:29 -0800
Subject: 14.004 Re: Garbles in Shakespeare
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.004 Re: Garbles in Shakespeare

John Robinson replied:

>>Garble is not a good word to search for. A bit of confusing
>>text is called a "crux."

But Robin Hamilton questioned:

>Isn't there a bit of elision here?  A crux turns on a piece of
>stable text, such as Lear's "Pray thee, undo this button,"
>where there's even pre-post-modernist multiple interpretations.
>A garble (which I assumed Al was asking after) is where the
>text itself is mushed, a different business entirely.

I definitely meant garble, referring to mixed-up, mutilated text.  That
it is mixed up might be less the fault of the author than, say, the
typesetter, or in the case of a bad quarto, the person who took down the
actors' words.  I mean the swatches of original text where the reader
will exclaim, That couldn't possibly be right.  What have editors done
with such garbles?

Al Magary

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